Djokovic loses his temper, semifinal match
SHANGHAI — For Novak Djokovic, there were no songs on stadium court at the Shanghai Masters on Saturday. Just a smashed racket, torn shirt, and a lot of frustration.
The top-ranked Serb struggled to control his errors — and his emotions — and was upset in the semifinals by Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-4, 6-4.
Andy Murray had his own anger issues in the other semifinal against Gilles Simon, but the second-seeded Scot regained his composure and pulled out a 6-4, 6-3 victory to advance to his 10th final of the year.
Djokovic, a three-time champion in Shanghai, was noticeably off his game for the second straight day after laboring to victory over German qualifier Mischa Zverev in the quarterfinals. He sprayed his groundstrokes and missed routine volleys, finishing with 29 unforced errors.
He was also a miserable 2-of-9 on break-point chances.
Against Zverev, Djokovic tried to stay calm by shrugging off errors and even humming a song to keep his anger from boiling over.
This new attitude was nowhere to be seen on Saturday, however.
Djokovic smashed his racket into bits after losing the first set — later grabbing a towel from a ballgirl to sweep up the pieces himself — and ripped his shirt open in anger during another point. In other tennis news:
• Wild-card entry Aron Hiltzik will take on Wil Spencer in the championship match of the Texas Tamale Company Houston Cup on Sunday after each player eliminated one of the top seeds in semifinal action.
Spencer fought off a late rally to down the top seed, Yuki Bhambri, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 to earn a berth in the final. Hiltzik defeated third-seeded Frederik Nielsen, 7-5, 6-4.
The championship match is set for noon at the George R. Brown Tennis Center at Rice University.